Decorators' Show House melds Spanish style with unique contemporary flair

Sunday

Apr 24, 2011 at 12:01 AMApr 24, 2011 at 1:20 PM

An 83-year-old Spanish revival home in Upper Arlington has a colorful history, but it's a safe bet that this is the first time shoes have been hung on its walls.

The shoes, mounted inside a picture frame, are among hundreds of designer touches found in the 2011 Decorators' Show House, which opens Saturday for a three-week run.

An 83-year-old Spanish revival home in Upper Arlington has a colorful history, but it's a safe bet that this is the first time shoes have been hung on its walls.

The shoes, mounted inside a picture frame, are among hundreds of designer touches found in the 2011 Decorators' Show House, which opens Saturday for a three-week run.

Eighteen interior designers and four landscapers have added their flourishes to the 4,500-square-foot, five-bedroom home that looks as if it has been plucked from a Zorro movie.

The home, built by Ohio State Journal cartoonist Harry Westerman in 1928, had fallen in and out of repair - and at one point approached condemnation - before being purchased by Nancy and Tom Vadakin in 2000. They renovated the home, restoring its Mediterranean features, before moving to a Delaware County condominium.

Once the couple moved out, the home - for sale at $875,000 - became ideal for the 19th Decorators' Show House, held every two years as a fundraiser for the Columbus Museum of Art.

"It's a lot easier if the home is empty and for sale," said event co-organizer Joan Mast. "You can really see how designers apply their creativity to a bare room."

The house might have been empty, but it wasn't quite a blank slate. Designers can make no structural changes or expensive alterations such as new cabinetry. Their weapons are paint, wallpaper, rugs, window treatments, paintings, light fixtures and furniture - much of which is for sale during the show.

For the most part, designers strove to modernize the home without losing sight of its pedigree.

"We wanted to create a quiet glamour, an updated version of a Spanish revival house," said John Wilson, owner of CRI Interiors. "I like to have things feel like they've always been here, but with a modern twist."

The overall result is a contemporary classic - the old and new play off one another, yin and yang, in almost every room.

Wilson, for instance, combined contemporary silver bowls with a classical nude statue in the foyer.

In the living room, large abstract paintings hang near an antique corner desk and a Spanish-style fireplace. And, in the family room, a striking modern glass sculpture rests in front of walls painted to resemble stone.

"We wanted something cozy, casual and relaxed," said Katie Hixon, whose firm, Katie Hixon Interiors, designed the family room. "But we also felt the room needed to reflect the Spanish architecture of the house."

Interior designers, like fashion designers, tend to pull out all the stops for such shows. For most of them, the show provides their biggest promotional tool. The resulting designs are intended to catch eyes as much as offer real-world design solutions.

For the master bedroom, Tracie McGarity - owner of Acquisitions for the Home - instructed an intern to add a fringe of small chains, like those used for light pulls, to the bottom of a chaise longue.

But for sheer quirkiness, designer Kellie Toole might have topped them all with her hanging shoes.

Toole converted a second-floor bedroom into a female retreat she calls a "she-den." (The home also has a second-floor "he-den.")

"I filled this with all the things I love: wine, books and shoes," Toole said with a laugh while decorating the room. "I put the wine and books on the shelf, but I can't do that with the shoes, so they become the art."

Toole hung an empty frame on the wall and mounted shoes on nails inside the frame, creating a 3-D "painting."

Mast and her fellow organizer, Robin Comfort, hope such curiosities help draw a record crowd to the show house, to be open through May 22. Past tours have generated as much as $300,000 for the museum.

"You can get a lot of great ideas here that you could do yourself," Mast said. "Or you could pay $21,000 for a glass sculpture."

jweiker@dispatch.com

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.